It is common to use different kinds of subsea equipment such as separators, pumps, compressors, etc. in different subsea applications. Multiphase well production fluids comprising a mixture of water, oil and gas enter the separator through a fluid inlet and are separated through a number of fluid outlets, i.e. a crown device, such as a gas outlet, a water outlet and/or an oil- or hydrocarbon outlet, in the separator.
It has proved to be a challenge, when having one fluid outlet from the separator, that the pump capacity of the pump driving the multiphase oil- and gas flow from the separator through the crown has to be larger than what is available on the market today. It is therefore a need of a solution that solves this issue about the available maximum pump capacity.
In relation to subsea systems, e.g. from the “Tordis” or “Marlim” field on the Norwegian continental shelf, it is known to use subsea flow splitters, such as “T-pieces” or “Y-pieces”, for the splitting of a multiphase oil- and gas flow in one pipeline into two flows in separate pipelines. One reason for splitting the flow may be to have smaller equipment handling parts of the wellstream instead of one large equipment unit handling the whole wellstream. However, by the use of these known flow splitters, the mixture ratio of the oil and gas may be different in the flows separated in the flow splitter, as one is not sure how the flows divide in the flow splitter nor the flow regime of the flow before entering the flow splitter. As this is the case, mixers are often arranged upstream of the flow splitter to create a more uniform flow mixture at the inlet of the flow splitter, thereby ensuring more equal splitting of the flow. This adds to the complexity, size and price of the system. There is therefore a need for a simplified, more reliable way of splitting one flow in two or more equal flows.
An object of the invention is therefore to provide a subsea system that eliminates or reduces at least some of the disadvantages related to the prior art solutions.